Town Names: Welcome to Hell

In a former post, I talked about the importance of our own names. But today, I want to highlight fascinating names of towns around the good ol’ U.S.A.  While only two people are typically involved in naming a child, I would think that more input would go into the naming of a town. I don’t know, though, since I’ve never been asked to name a municipality.

Certain town names have clearly been chosen to give you a warm fuzzy feelings and a desire to visit or live there:

Friendly, West Virginia

Magnet, Nebraska

Paradise, Utah

Pleasureville, Kentucky

Welcome, Minnesota

Welcome, North Carolina

What Cheer, Iowa

Other towns, however, aren’t so sure about their appeal:

Accident, Maryland

Boring, Oregon

Cut Off, Louisiana

Embarrass, Wisconsin

Experiment, Georgia

Okay, Oklahoma

Peculiar, Missouri

Uncertain, Texas

Why, Arizona

Whynot, North Carolina

Some towns are named after animals, such as Antelope, Idaho or Swans Island, Maine. But I want to know the stories behind Ducktown, Tennessee; Fishkill, New York; and most especially, Lizard Lick, North Carolina.

Other towns seemed to be named after the kind of people you might expect to find residing there. Which of these would you want to live in?

Guys, Tennessee

Idiotville, Oregon

Loco, Oklahoma

Normal, Illinois

Perhaps these towns are named for what one might expect to find there:

Hygiene, Colorado

Jackpot, Nevada

Tightwad, Missouri

Yellville, Arkansas

Some towns don’t have names at all, but numbers:

Hundred, West Virginia

Ninety Six, South Carolina

Village Eight, Hawaii

A few towns changed their names when a company offered some perk. The most widely known is Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. T or C, as it is often known, changed from Hot Springs in 1950 when Ralph Edwards, host of the radio show Truth or Consequences, asked a town in America to rename in celebration of the game show’s tenth anniversary.

The town of Clark, Texas renamed itself DISH, Texas in 2005 in exchange for all town residents receiving free basic television service for ten years and a free DVR from Dish Network. And Halfway, Oregon was temporarily named Half.com, Oregon, for which it received computers and $110,000 from the Half.com company. It has since reverted to Halfway.

Some towns seem inappropriately named, like Unalaska, Alaska; Beach, North Dakota; and Hurricane, Utah. Do they understand where they live?

And some towns are downright scary. There is War, West Virginia and Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Moreover, who wants to drive into a town with the sign “Welcome to Hell”? And yet, there is Hell, Michigan.

More frightening to me is Roachdale, Indiana. You couldn’t pay me enough to live in a place named after roaches! If enough of them occupy the area to determine the town’s name, I’m packing up and moving to Humansville, Missouri – where presumably we have a chance against those nasty exoskeletal creatures.

Finally, here are two of my Texas favorites:  Cut and Shoot and Gun Barrel City.

For those towns that simply cannot come up with an appropriate label, they could take a page from a town in Tennessee called Nameless.

What’s the most strangely named town you’ve visited? What unusually named towns are in your state? Where did your town get its name?

Wednesday Words: What's in a Name?

“What’s in a name? A rose by any
other name would smell as sweet.”

 – William Shakespeare,

Romeo and Juliet

It’s a beautiful line from an amazing play, but is it true?  Would we still be talking about these star-crossed lovers more than four hundred years later if they were Bartholomew & Agnes?  Maybe, maybe not.

So what is in a name?  Face it:  We conjure up images of people by hearing their names.  What do you think of when you hear Brittany, Chelsea, Katelyn?  Ladonna, Shaneka, Selena?  Gertrude, Hazel, Beulah?  Maria, Lupe, Consuela?  Even a name that has the same meaning can sound different depending on how it’s used – such as Joe vs. José vs. Joseph vs. Joey.

Maybe the words that matter most to us personally are our own names.  Do you like your own name?  I didn’t like Julie growing up. I wanted a more distinguished name – like Priscilla.  But I have come to appreciate that my name suits me well.  It’s straightforward, not terribly common, and has an upbeat sound. 

The concern of what is in a name came to bear pretty heavily when choosing our children’s names.  After I unceremoniously threw out my husband’s first picks and he did the same to mine (ah, marital compromise!), we were then faced with the task of choosing a name that was acceptable to both of us and communicated what we wanted to say about our child.

I have to say that I am not personally among those comfortable with naming my child after a fruit (Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter is Apple), an object (Michael Jackson named a son Blanket), or a place (Ireland belongs to Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger).  Not to mention Facebook’s Like button.  I also did not feel the need to have Joseph John Glover IV –no family names came into play.  Moreover, I insisted that the name be pronounceable:  Some people seem to think they can spell a simple name like Cindy as Zynndee.  Really?  That just confuses me.

So after going through the Baby Name Book we had (and there are thousands and thousands of baby names!), we gathered a group of names to work with.  We ranked them and picked out top girl and boy choices.

The next test came when I asked teachers in my family how schoolchildren could use these potential names to mock and bully my future children.  Honestly, if you name your child Buford Ulysses Grant and he wears glasses, expect him to be called BUG eyes (and worse).  There are some names or initial combinations that are like painting a bull’s-eye target on your child’s back.

I think my children like their names okay.  They are strong male names, with no mockability factor thus far, and they have special meaning to us.

I like my first name as well.  And I have the special happiness of liking both my maiden and married names (lucked out on that one).

What do you think of your own name?  Does your name have special meaning?  Is there a story behind how you got your name?  How about your children’s names?  How did you pick them?  If you are a writer, do you have a pen name?  How did you choose it?